Sniper!
by 8andahalfby11
Summary: After departing the high school, the girls face a new kind of threat.
1. Target Located

_Author's note: The events depicted here occur between Chapters 32 and 33 of the manga. Spoilers are minimized so that anime-only watchers can read this without major concern. The_ ONLY _spoiler is that the car is exchanged for an RV._

* * *

 ** _Chapter 1 - Target Located_**

From his perch atop a building in Yokohama, the Sniper saw everything.

First came the lights, flashing blue and white and red as first a few, then more, then all of the ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars in the city came to life. He watched them scramble in all directions as calls poured in. Some even made it back to their respective stations or hospitals.

The planes and helicopters came next as elements of the JASDF and USAF raced to target bridges, ferries, highway overpasses...anything to stop or slow the new menace. Within an hour, they had all gone north, to Tokyo, and the sound of engines faded as well.

With both came the fires. The Sniper had grown up in a forest of concrete, and could scarcely believe the way that the city lit up at night, not with LEDs and Neon of an advanced civilization, but reduced to the primitive, dull orange of a time when humans were organized by nothing more than fear, anger, and hunger.

Finally, he saw _them_. Dozens, then hundreds of forms that shuffled along the roads and through the park, groaning and gasping through whatever illness overtook them and reduced them to little more than animals. Here, a salary man, dragging a busted foot as he stumbled away from a policy meeting that had been indefinitely postponed. There, a disheveled woman with a busted jaw that could never operate well enough to consume anything in the oozing grocery bag, still dangling from her shoulder. Sometimes, he would see the school uniform of a child, and could make out with his rifle scope their blank and rotting eyes.

A week after the end, the Sniper decided that he'd seen enough. Against the orders of the Company, not caring for the limits on his ammunition, he began to target the uniforms. _They, at least, should rest_ , he thought. If the world had truly ended, then the children, he decided, should properly end. Yet, over time, the Sniper's eyes began to develop a kind of blankness of their own. Eventually, he couldn't see… he couldn't see the guts and bits of brain that flew as his shots landed, or the others that tore at the fallen body as they devoured the remains, or the strips of cloth or smears of blood that mercifully vanished after rain. He only saw the uniforms and, when he did, he fired.

By the time that the brown and beige RV entered the intersection by Isezaki-Chjamachi Station, he couldn't see it.

* * *

Even if Yuuri Wasaka was sitting in the back of an RV on its way to Saint Isidore University, her mind was back in Megurigaoka High School.

She was in the "bedroom" again. The lights were out, and in the dim light that penetrated the storm clouds outside, she could barely make out the shape of the girl writhing in pain on the couch before her.

 _If I ever get infected,_ Kurumi had told her, _don't hesitate._

She could feel the plastic handle of the butcher's knife in her right hand, now slick with sweat as she raised the nine-inch blade above her head.

 _Promise me._

Something tapped her on the nose, and the memory burst like a soap bubble. Yuuri blinked twice, and found her face inches away from an over-excited grin and mess of pink hair.

"Rii-san has such serious daydreams!" Yuki Takeya declared. "That must be from all of those textbooks you read! You should read manga instead!"

From the front passenger seat, Miki Naoki called, "Rii-san reading all of those textbooks is a big part of why we still have water to drink and food to eat… _had,_ actually, before half the snacks vanished."

Yuki scratched the back of her head and gave a nervous laugh. _Right,_ Yuuri reminded herself. _We were diverting to this part of Yokohama to replenish our food supplies. All we need is one good mini-market, and we can make it the rest of the way to the University._

The RV ground to a halt at the intersection in front of Isezaki-Chjamachi Station, and Miki got out first, peeking out the side door of the vehicle and saying, "Looks clear. I don't see any of them around. I don't see any in the mini-mart over there either."

"No problem!" Kurumi said, entering the main compartment of the RV. "I'll have that place swept and cleared in five minutes!"

Yuuri looked up at her classmate, and her eyes fixated on the bandages still wound around the girl's right arm. In the back of her mind, she could still hear the shrieking. _Promise me._

"No way!" Yuki called. "School Living Club Rule #3, no one goes anywhere alone!"

"Then I'll go with—" Miki started, but Yuuri cut her off.

"No, I'll go."

This bought her a trio of surprised looks. "Yuuri-senpai?" Miki questioned.

"Miki, you've helped out plenty. I should go this time."

Yuuri caught Miki and Kurumi exchanging a look and, ignoring both, went to the back of the RV to grab the metal bat. While never as effective as Kurumi's shovel, this was the most readily accessible secondary weapon from the school. She made a slow, vertical practice swing, but as she did she couldn't help thinking, _I haven't actually killed anything yet, have I?_

Well, she almost had once… but Miki had shown up on time.

Without waiting for any further comment from the other girls, Yuuri made her way over to the RV door and pushed it open.

It was almost midday, which meant that there weren't any shadows for the creatures to hide in. The streets were remarkably empty too, with only a few cars sitting between them and the convenience store. This section of Yokohama was packed with taller buildings, and formed the one thing that Yuuri absolutely despised about traveling. At the school, they had known the safe spaces, and even the mall had been open enough to make it easy to gauge danger. Here, dark windows on floor after floor stared down at her with quiet menace.

"Ah, it's good that we're stopping here," Kurumi said from behind her. "All that driving was making me stiff."

Yuuri turned to see that the other girl had her arms stretched high above her head, the big orange gardening shovel balanced up at the top. With a sigh, she let her arms and the weapon back down, and said, "Right, I'll take the lead."

"Kurumi…"

"That might work on Miki, but it won't work on me," Kurumi said with a smirk. "You do plenty to pull your weight, but you're not a fighter. So _please_ , as the resident samurai, let me go first."

She didn't get time to counter as Kurumi jogged past her towards the store, glanced in through one of the broken windows, then waved her forward. When Yuuri joined her, she said, "No sounds, and I don't see anything… oh," Kurumi held up a flashlight and handed it to her. "You forgot this. Could you be my spotter while we sweep the place?"

"Of course."

They stepped into the building together, Yuuri feeling especially conscious of the glass crunching under her shoes. Before her, Kurumi held the shovel at shoulder height, ready to cut down anything that tried to jump them. As they passed the third aisle, Yuuri said, "Kurumi?"

"What?"

"What's… what's the secret for doing it so easily… killing _them_ , I mean."

Kurumi shrugged. "I don't think about it that much. Maybe that's the secret. The one time I thought about it too much, Megu-nee… well, you remember that. Why?"

"It's just… I worry sometimes. If something happened to you or Miki, would I be able to defend you?"

The girl in front of her lowered the shovel a moment to turn and give her an honest smile.

"Rii-san, you've already protected me through the worst of it. You're doing just fine."

 _If Miki_ _hadn't arrived in time…_

"We should pick up the pace," Kurumi finished. "If we take too long, Yuki will charge over here to raid the snack aisle before we've finished."

* * *

Indeed, it was all Miki could do to keep Yuki from leaving the RV.

"But they've probably gut Nummy Sticks over there," Yuki whined. " _Nummy Sticks_ , Mii-kun!"

" _Senpai,_ " Miki said with a huff, "We're supposed to wait until the others give us the signal. Do you see a signal?"

"Hmm…" Yuki leaned out the door to squint over at the store and, perking up, said, "We could surprise them and show up early!"

"That's a terrible idea."

"But Rii-san looked so down! A surprise would probably brighten her whole day."

Yuuri had looked down, Miki reflected. In fact, the club leader had looked upset ever since they'd left the radio station, if not earlier. True, Rii was far more pensive than either of the other girls, but they'd been living together long enough for Miki to know that Yuuri was genuinely troubled. If she'd noticed, and Yuki and noticed, she was sure that Kurumi had noticed too, so why didn't Yuuri say anything to them?

"Rii-san could use cheering up," Miki agreed, "But I don't think a surprise would be a good way to do it."

But Yuki would not be deterred. "In _that case_ , I'm going to get a Nummy Stick for Rii-san too!"

"Implying that your original plan was to hoard all of them for yourself."

"Aww, that would be mean, Mii-kun! You're my junior, so of course I'd share with you…" by this point, she was leaning so far forward that, for a moment, Miki thought that she was about to tumble out of the RV. "Oh!"

"What?"

"Rii-san's giving us the signal!" Miki was powerless to prevent Yuki from sprinting across the road to the store, and shaking her head, followed Yuki out into the open.

She'd visited this section of Yokohama with Kei once, what felt like an eternity ago. Kei had really liked one particular ramen shop a few blocks east of the train station. The park that ran along the major street from the station was a good place to enjoy the flowers in the spring, or ice cream in the summer, or the seasonal lights in the winter. All of it was gone now… but maybe the flowers would return. _Maybe._ So much had transpired since the initial infection that Miki wasn't certain of anything anymore.

A flash of movement caught her eye and she looked up at the building towering over the convenience store and intersection. There was nothing there now, but she could've sworn that she saw something moving in one of the upper windows. Thinking about it, she decided that it was one of _them_ locked in an upstairs room, unable to figure out the lock and therefore doomed to rot there.

 _That nearly happened to you, right?_

Miki shook the thought from her head, and joined the others in the store.

Unlike the school commissary, which had been mostly preserved during the disaster, this store was a mess. As Miki swept her light over the racks, she could see that much of the food had spoiled and rotted away long ago. Ultimately she picked up a shopping basket and joined Rii, who was squatting next to a collection of canned goods. "Anything worth saving?" Miki asked her.

"A lot of it's still good," Rii said. "Most canned food, if you leave it unopened in a dark place, can last up to three or four years. The instant noodles should be good for a while too, but I'd be really careful with processed foods, even if they do have long expiration dates."

"It's good that all of that reading is paying off for you."

Yuuri gave a sad smile and shook her head. "Not from a book! I just read the expiration date labels!"

 _That should have been obvious_ , Miki chided herself, and, looking away, said, "I should still borrow some of your books someday. It would probably do all of us more good than rereading the latest Steppen King novel."

When Yuuri said nothing, Miki looked back to find the oldest girl looking at her. "Miki-chan," she said. "I never asked, but… why do you still read horror stories?"

"Well…" it was a fair question. At this point, they were _living_ a horror story, so why bother with the fake stuff?

She was saved by Yuki who rushed up to them with wide eyes and a big box of breakfast cereal. "Look, look!" She declared, "This one says it has 100% Vitamin A, AND Vitamin D!"

Miki examined the box and the light from her flashlight picked up the holes in the bottom. "That one's no good, senpai."

"Huh?"

"You should probably open it up and check first."

Yuki did so, and as she opened the top flaps a cluster of fat, black cockroaches spilled out of the container and onto the floor, and she let lose a loud shriek as she dropped the box.

Kurumi was there instantly, shovel at the ready, but froze as she saw nothing other than the three girls. "Yuki, what's wrong?" She asked.

Yuuri was already next to the roaches, pointing at them with her flashlight. She flashed up a settled smile at the other girls and said, "It's okay. Yuki had a few hitchhikers."

As they gathered to get a closer look at the bugs, Yuki said, "I was hoping to surprise Rii-san with food, but I wound up getting surprised instead."

"You know," Kurumi said, raising a mischievous eyebrow, "I hear that in some countries, bugs _are_ food."

" _Ewwwww._ "

"So," Miki said, "What are we going to do with them?" She noticed Kurumi heft the shovel again, since the implied answer obvious.

Instead, Yuuri said, "let's leave them be. They're probably just as surprised as we are, and were hiding in that box to survive."

 _Kind of like us_ , Miki thought. They spent a few more minutes gathering supplies and were about to leave when Yuki noticed the manga magazines being sold at the front of the store. "Rii-san, look!" she cried, "I've gotta see if they have the latest issue of Eyeball Man!"

"Yuki-senpai…" Miki started. _They haven't had a new volume in months, and the mangaka probably ate the scenario writer._ Rii's question struck her again, _why do you still read horror stories?_ For that matter, why was Yuki so excited over some stupid shounen manga?

Yuuri caught Miki's glance, offered her usual warm smile and baseball bat, and said, "You go on ahead and get everything packed away. I'll spend a few minutes with Yuki."

Miki gave her a curt nod, and hauled the grocery basket and weapon back out onto the street. She could see that Kurumi had already made it back to the RV, and was hidden from view. Kurumi was probably eager to keep moving, and Miki couldn't blame her. Yokohama wasn't a bad city, but ever since the residents had developed a taste for live humans Miki had always felt wary. Setting her basket down on the hood of an abandoned Toyota Prius, Miki looked back at the building they'd just left. It was the perfect example; places like the mall had been full of the infected. Where were they all now? Surely, Yuki's broadcast at the school hadn't sent the entire city home, so where had all the people gone?

She suddenly found herself thinking of the lone infected stumbling around the room near the top of the building, and tried to find it again. To her surprise, one of the windows was open, and she could see the sparkling of something inside reflecting the sunlight. _Funny_ , she thought, _it looks kind of like—_

At that moment, years of Japanese and Western Horror/Thriller novels came crashing down on her, and she made a split second decision, which simultaneously saved her life and propelled her into an entirely new and unusual kind of hell.

Miki Naoki ducked.

 _ **BANG**_


	2. Angle of Descent

_**Chapter 2 – Angle of Descent**_

It had been the shrill cry from somewhere below that had finally woken the Sniper. He had taken to sleeping most of the time, awaiting orders that never came.

This time, as he would any other time, he dragged himself up and onto the chair facing the window. He didn't pay much attention to the view—the scene beyond that window was already burnt into his eyes as if he was an old CRT television. Day after day after day, same trees, same buildings, same wrecked cars. Sometimes the sun or clouds would cast shadows. The only major change, of course, would be whenever _they_ were walking around down below.

He reached over and picked up his Scoped Howa Type 64. The weapon was still in perfect working condition; seeing to its maintenance had become a robotic, nightly tradition, and he had yet to experience a significant jam. The Company had hired him for his experience with the gun in the JGSDF, and had expected him to follow his orders, which he initially did:

Avoid all infected individuals.

Eliminate any non-government agents that attempt to capture or sample infected individuals in the first seven days.

Eliminate only infected individuals that present a direct threat to you, or your ability to carry out your orders.

Await further orders.

Granted, he had taken up a side hobby of "saving" children, but the company wouldn't care. _They deserve to be saved_ , he told himself. _They must be. After all, if I had to watch—_

 _If I had to watch them—_

— _againagainagain—_

 _THEIR SKIN! THEIR EYES! LOOKLOOK AT THEIR EYES THEIR—_

The Sniper snapped his rifle up to his shoulder and scanned the streets below. There, he could see them now, the lily-white uniforms of two students down below. One was out of sight before he could pull the trigger, but the other stopped and waited by a wreck.

 _Poor thing,_ he thought as he centered his sights on her head of messy, short, blonde hair.

 _Poor thing,_ he thought, flipping the safety switch into the OFF position.

He curled his index around the trigger. _Poor, poor, poor, poor—_

And for a moment, the girl was staring back at him. Her eyes were deep blue.

And for just a second, the Sniper hesitated. That was all. _Wait!_ Some remaining rational part of his mind screamed. _WAIT!_

 _ **BANG!**_

* * *

"MIKI! MIKI!"

"BACK! STAY BACK!"

Yuki's voice joined the cacophony with a terrified wail, while Yuuri stood beneath the doorway of the mini-mart, dumbfounded. _Wasn't that—_

This wasn't the first time in the past few months that everything had gone to hell on her, and then, like the other times, it took a few seconds for the rational, planning part of her head to catch up. "QUIET!" She screamed. "Everyone— _Yuki!_ " She shot a glare over at the other girl, who pressed her hands over her mouth and, while still sobbing, regained some degree of control.

This achieved, Yuuri called out to the younger girl by the car. "Miki-chan, are you alright?"

"They missed!" Miki yelled back. "I'm fine, I think!"

"You're not fine," Kurumi shouted back, "I'm coming back out—"

"NO!" Miki said. "You'd be putting yourself in the line of fire."

"But—"

"Stay put, Kurumi!" Yuuri shouted, then, "Miki, where did you see the shooter?"

"Top floor," she responded. "Window on the far left corner—my left. I could see the light glinting on his rifle scope."

Yuuri slipped just an inch or two out of the Mart, just enough so that she could see up at the building above her, but still covered enough so that it would be impossible for a shooter to attack her without falling out of the window himself. "Hello!" She screamed up at them. "We're okay! We're not infected! Don't shoot!"

Nothing.

"Please, if you can hear us, say something!"

Nothing.

"Hang on," Miki called and, grabbing one of the _intact_ cereal boxes from her grocery basket, lifted it out of cover. Yuuri watched with bated breath as the entire box came into view, then the edge of Miki's hand.

 _ **BANG**_

The cereal box was blasted out of Miki's hand, its contents exploding from the back and scattering all over the street. "St-still m-missed," Miki said.

"Whoever they are, they don't want to be friends," Kurumi said.

"I can see that!" Miki snapped. "Rii-san, what are we supposed to do?"

 _You're asking ME?_ Yuuri wanted to shout. She had never encountered anything like this before. Ms. Sakura had taught her how to plan against an enemy that creeped up on you slowly and could be kept away by walls and shovels, but this? A man with a gun in Japan was already unheard of outside of the police or Self Defense Force, so this had to be some kind of criminal—and a deranged criminal at that. Who in their right mind would shoot at school children?

Kurumi was stuck in the RV with the shovel. If she tried to run for the mini-mart, she would be shot.

Miki was pinned down by the Prius with the metal bat. If she tried to move, she would also be shot.

This only left one option.

"Kurumi, Miki, stay where you are," Yuuri said. "I'll go upstairs and deal with the problem."

From where she was standing, she couldn't see the looks on Kurumi's or Miki's faces, but she could imagine them. "No way," Kurumi said, "I'll—"

"Walk out that door and you're dead," Miki snapped. "Rii-san's right. It has to be her."

 _Yes,_ Yuuri thought, _of course it does. It has to… I'm the only one who hasn't—_

"I'm going too!" Yuki declared.

"No," Yuuri said.

"But you can't go alone!"

"Yuki—"

The pink-haired girl shoved three fingers up in the air. "School Living Club Rule Three, no one goes anywhere alone!"

"But—"

"Rules are rules, Rii-san!"

 _But it could be dangerous!_ She was about to argue… then realized that Megumi had implemented that rule precisely because _everything_ was dangerous now. Staring into Yuki's wide eyes, Yuuri could see that her friend had already puzzled out as much.

"Okay," Yuuri said. "Yuki's with me. You'll know that it's safe to move when I call from the top window."

"What if we don't hear you?" Miki asked.

"Then I'll take something in the room and throw it at the ground. Don't worry, you'll know."

With that, she took Yuki's hand, flicked her flashlight back on, and started back into the building's shadowy interior.

* * *

Miki couldn't see or hear Yuuri go, but just after she was sure she was out of hearing range, she heard a voice from the RV ask, "Do you think she'll be able to pull it off?"

"We don't have much of a choice," Miki replied. "We can't stay here forever."

"You're not getting it." The RV was angled just enough so that Miki could see Kurumi through the open RV door, but the roof protected the girl from taking sniper fire. She lacked her usual snarky grin, and she rested one cheek on the handle of her shovel as she waited. "You saw how Rii looked before she left the RV, right?"

"Yes."

"When I caught up to her, we talked. She had some questions… well, they just didn't sound like her at all."

Miki rested her head back against the car and said, "She hasn't been the same since we left the school."

"She asked me about what it was like to kill _them_ ," Kurumi pointed out. "We've talked about similar things before… whether or not they can think, whether or not they still feel pain, whether or not they have memories. This wasn't like that. It was like she was asking me how you go about preparing yourself to kill one. Like she was planning to go hunt one down."

True, that didn't sound like Yuuri… at least, it didn't sound like the Yuuri that Kurumi knew. Miki, on the other hand, was transported back to that moment when she entered the room to find the Club President, butcher's knife raised high above her head. She had turned her head at the noise of the door opening, and, for a moment, it was like Yuuri wasn't really there… like her mind had run away, leaving her eyes blank and dead. Worse, it was like the Yuuri that she knew was so far away, that it wasn't until Miki had taken away the knife and guided her classmate to a chair that the sweet, motherly girl reemerged.

Yuuri had not said a single word about it since, and Miki, afraid of causing some harm, had never brought it up herself. Still, the evidence was clear enough. "Rii-san could do it, if she had to," Miki concluded, then, trying to divert the focus, pointed out, "I did, after all."

"You've never talked about that."

"Of course not, the one that I killed was…" Miki drifted off, looking back in the direction of the mini-mart. She'd shared a few pieces with Yuuri in the past, but hadn't said much to the other two. Kurumi had been traumatized enough by the event, and Yuki did _not_ need to hear about the fate of her precious Megu-nee.

Kurumi offered her a dry smile and said, "Its okay, everyone's shy when talking about their first time."

"It wasn't—" Miki felt her face redden as she caught the joke. " _Senpai!_ "

"I can't take deep conversations like this," Kurumi said, stretching. "That's Yuuri's department."

"That's still not a good reason to bring up _that_ kind of a joke!"

"Why? Have you actually—" Kurumi stopped and, tilting her head, said, "Hear that?"

Miki listened, and, sure enough, she could hear a groaning on the wind. Looking up the road, she spotted the source; the thin silhouette of an infected man, dragging a broken foot as it slowly shambled in their direction.


	3. Range to Target

_**Chapter 3 - Range to Target**_

The shot went wide, and the girl vanished from the Sniper's scope.

 _It's not real_ , he told himself. _That wasn't real. It can't be real._

But, despite that, he could still feel the blue of her eyes burned into his brain, staring back at him.

No, not staring, he decided. Looking. Looking and thinking and probably accusing—

 _Impossible_ , he told himself. _The only ones out there who could have survived were members of the Company, and maybe,_ _ **maybe**_ _the military. Schoolchildren? Never._

 _Then what was it? What did I see? Am I going insane?_

As if in answer to his question, the voice started up.

"Hello?"

 _Shut up,_ he thought.

"We're okay! We're not infected! Don't shoot!"

 _Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!_

"Please, say something!"

He readjusted the scope on his rifle, accounting for the slight drift from the Type 64's single-screw attachment system. "Go away," he muttered under his breath. " _Go AWAY!_ "

He saw movement by the wrecked Prius and fired.

There was a spray, of course. He expected there to be a spray. _There ought to be a spray when you shoot someone/thing._ Blood, guts, brains…

Breakfast cereal…

The Sniper stared down at the cone of corn flakes that lay scattered beyond the car, and started to laugh. It was a subdued, quiet laugh; just enough so that he knew that it was there. Just enough so that he could tell that he couldn't stop.

He ejected the next casing, and dared—willed— _prayed_ for the girl to come out again.

Besides, he needed more of those eyes.

* * *

Yuuri saw the fire axe the moment that she and Yuki entered the emergency stairwell. It had been placed there years ago, presumably with the intent of fighting another, different yet still-uncompromising threat.

Next to her, Yuki pointed her flashlight up the central shaft of the stairs and into the darkness above, and said, "That's a lot of stairs. Can't we take the elevator, Rii-san?"

"There's no electricity," Yuuri replied, absorbed by the weapon on the wall. She tried to remember back to the shopping mall, what felt like ages ago, when she had initially taken the big knife. Had she planned on using it against someone? Perhaps not at first… but then she had kept it hidden from the others. She must've been planning something, but she simply couldn't recall.

Now, here she was, new weapon, about to…

About to, what, exactly?

She'd have an axe. The man on the top floor had a gun. Even if she managed to break down the door—which would almost assuredly be barricaded against zombies—she would need to cross the room with that gun pointed at her. And supposing that she got close enough to strike, then what?

Kurumi and Miki both had experience killing infected, but what she would need to do… what she had almost done to Kurumi…

"And we can't turn it back on?" Yuki whined, "It looks like a really long climb."

Yuuri grasped the axe and lifted it. It was about as heavy as Kurumi's shovel, and the edge looked about as sharp. "It's twelve floors," Yuuri said. "You might want to leave your backpack here at the bottom."

"Huh?" Yuki looked over her shoulder at the bright pink winged backpack on her back. "But my snacks and water are in there!"

"It'll be heavy, and you'll get tired easily."

Yuki thought about it, then said, "Nope! I'm going to take them up to the top to share with whoever's up there!"

 _Huh?_ Yuuri froze at that one. Yuki had witnessed both gunshots, so she knew what they were dealing with.

It was a defense mechanism, it had to be. Yuuri thought over some of the things that happened before they'd left the high school and that was the only conclusion she could come up with.

Like the High School illusion.

Like Megu-nee.

"I see," Yuuri said, offering a warm smile that she didn't feel. "Don't go ahead of me, okay?"

"Okay!"

They had barely passed the first landing when Yuki added, "Don't you think they'll be happy to meet us?"

Yuuri said nothing.

"I know they will!" Yuki exclaimed. "Remember with Mii-kun? She was all grumpy at first too, but once she got to know us, she became much, much better!"

"That's… an interesting way to put it."

"But that's because she only spent a few weeks alone. Can you imagine being alone for months and months? Whoever it is, they must be really grumpy," Yuki said then, after a pause, "Probably sad too."

Yuuri really, really didn't need to hear that right now. Her fist tightening on the axe handle, she said, "Yuki?"

"Yes, Rii-san?"

"You know that they're not friendly, right?"

Silence for a moment behind her, then, "But—"

"He _shot_ at Miki. He's dangerous, and we need..."

Again, Kurumi's voice. _Promise me._

 _I need to kill him._ There, she'd admitted to it, but even so, she felt her stomach twist and she grabbed the handrail as her sense of balance momentarily dropped out.

"Rii-san!" Yuki shouted, grabbing her before she could tumble further.

 _I'm going to kill him_ , she realized, _I'm going to take a living person and bash their brains in with an axe. Imagine that, pretty, little Rii-san covered in blood. Imagine what Megu-nee would think. Imagine what—_

"It's fine," she said. " _I'm fine._ "

"No, Rii-san, you look sick!"

"I'm FINE," she snapped, Swiping Yuki's hand away.

Yuuri regained her footing, took a deep breath and told herself, _you can do it. You must do it. You have to._ "Yuki, we need to assume the worst. The person with the gun wants to hurt us, and as President of the School Life Club, I need to make sure that everything we do stays safe. That's my job, to keep you safe."

She looked back at Yuki for a response, but the girl's eyes were downcast, and she looked on the verge of tears again.

"If you don't think you can handle it, wait here," Yuuri said. "Kurumi and Miki are waiting for me, and I have a lot more stairs until the top."

* * *

"This is bad," Miki said, ducking closer to the car. "Very, very bad."

The infected man was still a way's off, but even from this distance she could see the greasy hair, torn lips, vacant eyes, and jerking, stiff gait. He was wearing a black tee shirt with a large print of some weirdly-proportioned bishoujo from a magical girl anime.

"What?" Kurumi said.

"I've been spotted by an Otaku with a hunger issue."

"Don't all Otaku have troubled tastes?"

Miki rolled her eyes and said, "I think it'll be here in ten minutes, maybe less."

"No problem, I'll just—" Kurumi stopped, realizing the ramifications of leaving the RV, and said. "Oh."

"I've got the bat," Miki pointed out, "But if I stand up to get a good swing at it, the sniper will be able to see me."

"You can't swing at it from behind the car?"

"And do what, bash its kneecaps in? Either way you look at it, I'm too low."

"The sniper might kill it first."

"If the sniper was shooting at every one of _them_ that walked by, wouldn't there be a mountain of bodies around here? We're in the middle of a city!" Miki couldn't help but feel like this reinforced her previous concern. They WERE in the middle of a city, so why was the only infected person present a lone Otaku? Where was everyone else?

"If they're not shooting at _them_ , why are they shooting at _us_?" Kurumi argued.

"I don't know! Look, we just need to wait on Rii-san. She'll fix this."

"Rii-san's not a fighter," Kurumi said. "I've killed plenty of _them_ before, and you and Yuki have done it at least once, but Rii? Planner, yeah. Scout, sure. Defender, absolutely. Could she kill anyone, particularly someone… someone who's _not_ infected? No. Not in a million years."

"Not true," Miki said through gritted teeth.

"Rii will _die_ if I don't do something," Kurumi insisted, "Yuki too. I have to go."

"DON'T YOU DARE," Miki screeched, nearly lunging out from behind the car. "NOT AGAIN! NOT AFTER KEI!"

"Then what makes you convinced that Yuuri can pull this off? What has she killed before today?"

"The only reason she hasn't killed anything is because I stopped her!"

That gave Kurumi pause, and her face drooped slightly. "When was this?" She said. "What was she trying to kill?"

Miki couldn't take it anymore. Kurumi's was the same well-intended boneheadedness that she'd loved Kei for… and which had ultimately cause Kei to run off. It no longer mattered what Yuuri wanted, or what was polite, or if there was a better time.

Kurumi would not become another Kei.

"You," Miki said. "She almost killed _you._ "


	4. Wind Check

_**Chapter 4 - Wind Check**_

Kurumi and Miki weren't the only ones to notice the infected Otaku

The Sniper saw it too, watched its slow, shuffling approach as it neared the wreck and the RV. His grin exploded into a full-blown smile. _This is it!_ He thought to himself. _It will flush the girl out, and then I'll see those eyes again. I'll be able to see those pretty blue eyes in my scope and—_

But as he thought through the process, a strange idea occurred to him. Why would the infected man flush the girl from her hiding spot? After all, the infected usually didn't react that way. They didn't hide. They didn't flee sniper fire. There had been that other girl too, the one in the RV, who had yet to reemerge. Infected usually ignored each other, unless they were no longer mobile, at which point they cannibalized each other. Maybe he'd hit the girl the first time, and that's what this one…

No, that wasn't possible either. The girl in the RV would have gone back out into the open if that was true.

Therefore, the only possibility-the only truth—

 _NO!_ Another part of his mind retaliated. _There's no girl there at all. That MUST be the case._

But if _that_ was true, then the Otaku, once he arrived, wouldn't cause anything to happen. The imaginary girl with her imaginary eyes wouldn't be going anywhere.

 _Not possible_ , he countered again, _she reacted to your gunshot._

Only one way to know for sure, of course. He would wait. He would wait and watch as he had always done. Regardless, someone, something would move and, depending on how it moved, he knew what he would do.

He'd do what he'd always done.

He would blow something's damn head off.

* * *

Miki explored the visible sliver of Kurumi's face, looking for a reaction to the comment. What she got was almost exactly what she'd expected; the girl put on a forced smile and said, "Your jokes are worse than Yuki's."

Not willing to let Kurumi dodge like that, Miki clamped down, hard. "She almost killed YOU. After Megu-nee bit you, while you were laying there, infected, Rii pulled out a giant stainless steel knife. When I found her, she was standing over you like _this._ "

She held up her hands so that Kurumi could see the stabbing motion. "She was _this close._ If I had arrived ten seconds later, you would have died. If I hadn't gone for the medicine to begin with, she would have killed you."

Kurumi shook her head. "No."

"I'm telling the truth."

"No."

"Rii-san is definitely capable of killing because, like it or not, she sees the world as it is. You couldn't avoid it, I couldn't avoid it, even Yuki couldn't avoid it, and she tried the hardest of the four of us to keep herself separate from everything. If there's no other way, you start killing, and _Yuuri knows that._ "

"Shut UP!" Kurumi shouted, standing. "Even if she could've killed me, the important part is that she _didn't_. How long did it take you to get the medicine? Minutes? An Hour? Rii-san could have killed me immediately. She could have tried to kill me anyway after you returned. But guess what? I'M STILL HERE."

"But she can still do it, she has to!"

"She can't!"

"Then we're all dead!" Miki was crying now, and she buried her face in her hands.

"Miki-"

"You're all the same," Miki said. "You, Kei, Yuki, you all have this ideal picture that the world is good! That even if bad things show up, that somehow the good things in the world will win. The world isn't like that anymore! It's nasty and angry and it wants to _eat_ us!"

She glanced up at the approaching Otaku. He was now only a dozen meters away. It had obviously spotted her and, groaning, arms outstretched, it picked up its pace.

So that was that. No signal from Yuuri, no way for Kurumi to help. She was going to die scared and alone.

Just like Kei.

"Hey, Miki," Kurumi said with a grin.

"What?"

"Wanna know why Yuki still reads Eyeball Man manga?"

But Miki didn't have time to answer, and instead gasped in horror as Kurumi lunged from the RV, and out into the open.

* * *

Yuuri had lost count of the stairs and landings. She couldn't remember how long ago she had left Yuki and continued her ascent. Her entire universe was now wrapped up into the wooden handle of the axe in her right hand.

 _What's… what's the secret for doing it so easily… killing them, I mean._

She could hear the gunshot echoing in her head. The Sniper probably didn't find the situation so difficult. Kurumi's suggestion had been to think less about it, but it was impossible. She had to think about it. She was the group _planner_ , after all. How would she act when the gun was pointed at her? Better yet, how would she react as the brought the axe down.

It was like with Kurumi. _I promised. She had to go. The Sniper has to go. I promised Miki and Kurumi that I would handle this, and that's what I'll do. I'll kill him._

 _I'll kill him._

 _I'll bash his head until the brainbloodbones run and run and spill and run and-_

"Rii-san!"

 _Rip and cut until there's nothingnothing left and the blood and-and-and-_

"Rii-san!"

"Go away," Yuuri said, her voice sounding flat and alien in her own mouth. _I'm going to kill him. I'M GOING TO KILL HIM._

"No, Rii-san!" She felt a tug on the axe, but even as her eyes traveled over to see what was going on, her mind was elsewhere. She couldn't see any of it, not Yuki tugging at her weapon, not the staircase around her, just her target waiting on the floor above.

Another tug, the strongest of all, and Yuuri yanked the axe free. She dimly heard a _thwack,_ as the blunt side bounced off of something. For a moment, she heard nothing from Yuki, then, as she stepped onto the landing, "WHERE IS RII-SAN?"

 _Right here, now get out of the way, Yuki._

But Yuki wasn't having it. She grabbed Yuuri by the collar of her shirt and cried. "WHERE IS RII-SAN? I WANT RII-SAN BACK!"

"I'm here, Yuki."

" _You're not Rii-san._ "

Yuuri stopped pushing back against the girl before her. She let her eyes drop so that her gaze just barely drifted over the messy pink hair.

"You're not Rii-san," Yuki repeated. "Rii-san wishes you good morning at breakfast and good night before bed. Rii-san worries about you when you're sick, and celebrates with you when you're happy, and is a good, GOOD cook. Rii-san is brave when you're not, and calm when you're not, and keeps you safe when you're not.

"But she doesn't hurt people. She wouldn't hurt me. Because that's not Rii-san. Rii-san is like-is like a big sister!"

Yuki switched from grabbing her to a firm hug that landed her sobbing face in Yuuri's chest.

Returning to reality wasn't instant, it was like pulling up a foot caught knee-deep in mud, getting faster and faster, until it was racing at her so fast that she could nearly hear the screeching of tires, the horn…

The axe fell from her hand. "Yuki-chan?" Even with such a short phrase, her voice cracked as she spoke.

She looked down and could see a black and blue bruise marring the side of Yuki's face, which was when she realized; _the axe. I hit her._

"Yuki!" Yuuri returned the embrace, burring her face in the top of Yuki's head As the tears started. "I'm-I'm sorry, I shouldn't-I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

She heard a muffled voice from below and backed up half a step to Yuki could look up at her. "It's okay, Rii-san!"

"It's not!" Yuuri countered. "I-I did it again. I wasn't even thinking! It's like-it's Kurumi all over again!"

The girl before her tilted her head, questioning. "Kurumi?"

Yuuri nodded. "When she got sick… that knife from the mall… I almost-almost-if Miki hadn't shown up first—"

She watched Yuki for a reaction. What would it be, disgust? Horror?

But Yuki shook her head and said, "You made a mistake, Rii-san, but you know that what you did was bad, and that's good!"

"But I almost _killed her!_ " Yuuri said. "You can't just—"

"You need to talk with Kurumi if you haven't," Yuki said. "But you also need to forgive yourself. When Megu-nee… left, I wouldn't let her go for a long, long time. That's no good, Rii-san! I still remember what I did, and I'm still sad, but it's important to keep going, because that's what she would have wanted. I don't think Kurumi chan would want to lose the Rii-san she knows because of a mistake, and neither do I!"

 _When did this happen?_ She wondered, not for the first time on their road trip. _When did Yuki become so mature? She was always there to make us happy, but, now more than ever, it's like she's a big sister too._

"Kurumi and Miki still need us to help them," Yuuri said. "The man with the gun is probably still bad, and we could still get very hurt."

Yuki nodded. "Maybe, but Rii-san should still be Rii-san. Maybe the man with the gun made a mistake too, and needs someone to forgive him and give him one more chance."

"One more chance?" It was then that Yuuri noticed precisely where she was. They were on the final landing. The door to the upper level sat behind Yuki, and the Sniper just beyond.

"Just one more, and maybe, maybe things will turn out alright!"

Yuuri laughed and gave Yuki a soft pat on the head. "I can do that," she said. "Thank you, Yuki."

With that, she pushed her way to the emergency door and onto the floor where the Sniper waited.

If she had waited just a bit longer, she would have noticed Yuki give a contented sigh, turn on her heel, and follow. As she did, she tucked the axe carefully between her back and backpack, where Yuuri hopefully wouldn't see it.

Together, they walked down the hallway to the room at the end. "Okay," Yuuri said, casting one more glance back at Yuki. "One more chance."

Yuki flashed a confident smile back at her. "It'll be alright, Rii-san!"

Yuuri placed a hand on the door, took a deep breath, and-

 _ **BANG**_


	5. FIRE!

_**Chapter 5 - ...fire!**_

Yuuri froze at the sound of the gunshot. _Oh no,_ she thought, the panic welling up in her chest, _oh no, nonono, please, please don't let that mean what I think it means!_

She could always go back and get the axe, but then the entire conversation on the stairs would have been for nothing. It was officially decision time, so she turned back to Yuki and said, "If this goes wrong, run."

But Yuki didn't reply… at least, not verbally. Instead, she put on a remarkably determined look that told Yuuri everything she needed to know. She could hear Yuki's voice in her head whispering, _Rule 3._ No one goes anywhere alone.

That settled it, then. She took another deep breath, pushed on the door, and entered the room.

The Sniper was there, waiting, rifle up and aimed at her head.

* * *

"KURUMI!" Miki cried, even as the shot rang out.

Before her, Kurumi's shovel clattered to the ground. The girl followed soon after, collapsing to her knees.

Miki couldn't help it she rushed out of the protection of the wrecked Prius, seizing her friend by the shoulders. "You stupid, stupid—"

Kurumi started to laugh.

When Miki looked up, she found the older student ashen-faced, but very much alive. She was looking a few meters away.

On the ground, the infected otaku lay dead, the top of its head torn through by sniper fire.

* * *

Yuuri stood there, hands held up as she stammered, "I-I'm s-sorry for int-inter-rupting."

The Sniper was an older man, mid-30s with a grizzled look that suggested either a long life of backcountry work, or just a long amount of time outside. He was wearing worn but clearly upkept tactical gear, and Yuuri corrected her original assumption from _criminal_ to _mercenary_ , as his equipment was obviously more involved than anything your standard-fare thug would ever get their hands on. He held the rifle in position with steady, surgeon-like hands, but his face and eyes had a strange, glazed-over look of one who had either seen too much, or who hadn't seen anything new in a long, long while.

"My name is Yuuri Wakasa," Yuuri went on. She hadn't been shot yet, so her confidence was building. "I am—was—a student at Megurigaoka High School. It's—it's nice to meet you. What's your name?"

The Sniper slowly lowered the weapon, and when he spoke, his voice was low and raspy.

"But… you're just _children_ ," he said.

Yuuri glanced behind her and saw, to her amazement, Yuki, determined, axe out and at the ready. When the pink-haired girl noticed that the danger was gone, though, she lowered the weapon and joined Yuuri before the man with the gun. "There's four of us," Yuuri explained. "We survived at first by barricading ourselves in the school, but there was a fire and—"

"The Company said you were all going to die," the Sniper insisted. The gun was no longer raised, but the man was still clearly not-all-there. "The police, the military, all caught… infected. Everyone else was supposed to die..."

"Company?" Yuuri asked, shocked, her mind immediately going back to the manual from the School's shelter. "Is—are you talking about Randall Corporation? Is that who hired you?"

But he clearly wasn't listening. "I've taken so many of you," he whispered. "Dozens, I think, maybe hundreds…

"Of course the children would survive, of course, OF COURSE!" He burst out laughing, punctuated with a loud HAH that made Yuki jump and shrink closer to Yuuri.

Yet even this outburst was soon over, and his face drooped again. "I killed them all. Every one I could see, you know. I wonder—I wonder if any of them were like you."

He wandered over to the window. At this point, Yuuri was too confused and concerned to say anything to him, so she whispered to Yuki, "I'll send the signal to Miki and Kurumi. You head back to the stairway and make sure that it's still clear. I'll meet up with you soon."

Yuki gave her a wide-eyed look, but ultimately smiled, nodded, and left, leaving Yuuri alone with the Sniper.

She approached him slowly, and stated, "My group and I are leaving soon. We're going to a place called Saint Isidore University. We think that other survivors will be waiting for us. Would you like to come with us?"

No reaction.

"I know that the RV is cramped, but there's enough room so that all of us can go."

No reaction.

"Do you… do you want to stay here?"

This time, he said, "I'm a _killer_. Do you get that? I kill people. I blow their damn brains out. I killed so many of them… so many of _you._ The one below, I would have killed her too. I _wanted_ to kill her."

Remembering Yuki's speech to her, Yuuri reached out, waited for the man to react, and when he did not, lightly rested a hand on his shoulder. "You made a mistake," she said simply, "but as long as you're still able, you have the chance to make it better."

He turned his head to look at her, his dreary, unfocused eyes drifting over her face as his mouth slowly twisted into a smile. "A chance," he said. "I can—I can make it all better! Of course I can!"

Tears starting to stream down his eyes, he took Yuuri's hand and said, "You're right, there is _always_ a chance."

He let go of her hand, slung his rifle over his shoulder, and gave her a deep bow.

"Thank you," the Sniper said, and then threw himself out the window.

* * *

It took roughly two and a half seconds for the Sniper to fall from the top floor of the building and through the windshield of one of the parked cars below. Amazingly, even after two months of inactivity, the battery was still charged enough to power the security system, and the car's alarm shrieked to life.

Through endless pain and blurring vision, the Sniper was able to pick his head up enough to see the blonde-haired, girl on her feet, those big, blue eyes wide open in terror.

 _They look even better without the scope,_ he thought. Those eyes were the last thing he saw.

* * *

Miki looked up from the body of the dying sniper to the top floor window. In the dimming light, she couldn't see into the room that the Sniper had been using as a base, but she knew that Rii was up there, looking back down.

 _I'll take something in the room and throw it at the ground. Don't worry, you'll know._

She had stated not a minute earlier that Yuuri was capable of killing someone, but seeing the scene in front of her, she didn't want to believe that she'd seen what _must_ have happened. Decapitating infected with a shovel was horrific enough, but this…

"Uh… Miki?" Kurumi said.

Miki took her eyes off of the Sniper and looked around. Perhaps it was the sound of the car, but equally likely, Miki supposed, was the time of day. She had wondered where all of the infected had gone off to during the day, and why they hadn't encountered any in this part of the city. It was then that she realized—if infected students could stick to schedules, wouldn't infected adults do the same?

The work day was over, and they were parked in the middle of street during Rush Hour

All around them, buildings were starting to disgorge infected men and women, each slowly shambling out of their respective doors and onto the street. Some of them heard the car alarm, stopped, and turned to investigate the noise. "Time to go!" Miki declared, and they rushed together for the RV.

* * *

Half an hour later, Miki leaned against the side post of a slide in Yokohama Park while Yuki climbed up the ladder, telling her side of the story as she did so.

"... but the man didn't want to come with us, so Rii-san and I ran back downstairs and here we are!" she concluded.

Miki was reasonably certain that the story was missing lots of important pieces. Yuki had downplayed her own fear of the gunshots at the beginning, had failed to provide a reason why the Sniper had fallen out the window, and offered no explanation for why Rii-san looked like she'd _already_ cried her eyes out by the time she returned to the RV. Even more concerning was a gap of time where Yuki described climbing stairs, but dodged Miki's questions on how Yuuri had been handling the situation. A bruise on her cheek was passed off as "I hit my head on the way upstairs. I'm so clumsy!"

It wasn't the first time Miki had assumed that Yuki was covering for Yuuri, and it was fair to assume that it wouldn't be the last.

"It sounds like an exciting story," Miki said. "There were moments where Kurumi and I were worried that you'd never return."

"And make my cute junior sad?" Yuki said with a pout. "Never! That would be mean, Mii-kun!"

Miki sighed. "I wish I had your optimism, _senpai."_

"It's not just that," Yuki said, reaching the top of the ladder, "It's the right thing to do! Mii-kun already had one friend go missing, two would be twice as bad!"

 _Two would have been hell itself,_ Miki reflected, then, remembering her conversations with Rii and Kurumi, looked up and said, "Yuki—"

"UWAAAA! Don't look up my skirt!"

She hadn't seen anything, but her head snapped down and just the same. "Sorry! Sorry! I just wanted to ask you a question!"

"If it was about what you saw—"

"I didn't see anything! It's something else entirely!"

"It's okay, Mii-kun, we all have our strange days!"

" _Senpai!_ " Miki gave an annoyed huff. "Fine, I won't ask you."

"Aww, now I really want to know."

She took a deep breath and said, "Why do you still read Eyeball Man manga?"

Initially, she heard no response from Yuki, just the sound of her shoes striking the metal top of the ladder, followed by a squeaking noise as she slid down the slide. Miki looked up to see Yuki sitting there at the end, her arms held out as if she'd flown down the slide instead of descending the conventional way. The pink-haired girl looked back at her and said, "Because everyone wants to be a hero, and it's nice to read about people who want to help other people. Lots of other people think so too, which is why they made a manga out of it!"

"So you read it because you think it's nice to be nice?"

She shook her head. "I read about it because it reminds me that **other people** think it's nice to be nice."

Had that been what happened with the Sniper? Perhaps he'd realized his mistake and realized what Yuki was talking about. Perhaps Kurumi had too, which is why she was willing to take the risk.

"Hey, Mii-kun? Why do you read Steppen King novels?"

"Because…" the original reason had been beyond her, but now, looking back on it, the answer was obvious. "It's because no matter how bad things get, the bad things must come to an end eventually. Not always happily, but they do always end."

Yuki reached out and gave her a big hug. "Well, I _know_ we're going to get a happy end! Right Mii-kun?"

Miki smiled, patted her once on the head, and said simply, "Right, senpai!"

* * *

In the RV, Kurumi took a seat opposite to Yuuri and, grinning, said, "I've checked the map, and even though my driving was a bit crazy, we're still on course for Saint Isidore. I think we'll be there in a few more days."

"We only got one basket of food from the mini-mart, plus the snacks that Yuki shoved into her backpack." Yuuri said, consulting a line in her supply notebook. "It'll give us another day or so, but we'll need to stop of somewhere else."

"That's fine," Kurumi said, then with a wink added, "Just... no tall buildings this time. Or maybe I'll park closer to the door."

Yuuri smiled and shook her head. "No tall buildings" was an even taller order for somewhere like Japan, but they had learned a number of valuable lessons from the experience, and they wouldn't be caught in such a difficult position ever again.

"You know, Rii-san..."

Yuuri looked up from her notes to find that Kurumi was avoiding her gaze, and was instead tapping her two pointer fingers together as a nervous tic.

"If you're wondering, I didn't push him!" Yuuri blurted, then, shocked, threw her hands over her mouth, took a deep breath, than said, "What I mean to say…"

She lowered her hands and tried again, "What I meant was that the sniper jumped out the window on his own. I was hoping that he'd come with us, or maybe just give us some supplies and directions, but I think that he was just too broken. It was really bad, Kurumi. It made Yuki's case at the school look simple."

"Yeah, I thought it would be something like that. Killing _them_ is something you get used to after a while, but I don't think that any of us could do that to a normal person."

But Kurumi still looked nervous, and swallowing, continued with, "Miki told me about the knife."

Now it was Yuuri's turn to look away. "I see."

"I just wanted you to know… I'm okay with it. In fact, it's my mistake for asking that of you. If I'd taken time to read the whole Emergency Manual, I would've known about the medicine and would've told you to wait.

"But even without that, knowing how much it would hurt you to even try… that's not what a good friend does. If I really wanted something like that, I should've done it myself—"

"NO!" Yuuri said, reaching across the table and grabbing Kurumi's arms. "No matter what happens, we should all be trying to find answers until there's no hope left. That's why we're going to Saint Isidore… and Randall Corporation if we have to."

Kurumi didn't reply to that, but muttered, "I guess I just wanted you to know… I forgive you."

Yuuri responded with a sad smile, and, "Thank you, Kurumi."

"Oh, Rii-san?"

"Yes?"

"You can let go of me now."

Yuuri released Kurumi's wrists, and the other girl stood up and said, "I think I'm going to go out and play with Yuki and Miki for a few minutes. I could use some downtime after everything that happened."

"That's fine," Yuuri said, "Just, keep aware of your surroundings, and bring everyone back if you see anything dangerous."

Kurumi gave an amused snort, said, "Thanks, Big Sis," and slipped out of the vehicle.

Now alone, Yuuri lay her weary head on the table and watched out the window. A lot had happened to them in the past few months, but they were getting through it all together. Not just the infected—Megu-nee's departure, Miki's arrival, and now this—they were managing personal crises too. Even if she broke down from time to time, even if _any_ of them broke down, they were there to support each other, and they probably would be until the end, whenever and wherever that was.

And she would always be there to watch over them.

She absentmindedly pushed a lock of hair out of her face and whispered, "That's right, because I'm the big sister…"

* * *

 _The story continues in the manga, Chapter 33._

 **Author's Note:**

I wrote this as a way to apply my knowledge of the characters, and force a conversation between Kurumi and Rii about the knife incident, which never takes place in the Manga. Hopefully, you found this situational experiment just as interesting to read as it was for me to write it.

8andahalfby11

September 2, 2017


End file.
